Christopher Liu
1st Place – “ Zephyr”
Even though Christopher Liu is in the Emerging Artists 22 Years of Age or Younger category, he is not a newcomer to the jewelry world. He won first place in the Emerging Artists 18 Years of Age or Younger category in 2019 and has created his own custom design business. And you can see from his winning hairpin, “Zephyr,” that he is also a gifted designer and craftsman.
Artist Interview:
Q. How did you come up with the title?
As opposed to the name and myth associated with the Greek god of the West wind, Zephyr is instead meant to carry the more literal meaning. I wanted to capture that sense of gentleness and freedom of a bird in flight.
Q. What/who was your inspiration?
I definitely pull from themes of flow and movement. I have been a professional ice skater for many years, and I find my work is often based on the ice and the movement of myself and other skaters on the ice.
Q. How long did it take to make the piece?
This hairpin took a little over two months. The idea came long before I started Zephyr. The first time I created a hairpin it was for another skater who wore it in her performances and this piece, Zephyr, was a step up from it.
Q. What challenges did you overcome while you were making it?
There were a lot. I try to push myself in different areas of jewelry. And this had to do mainly with the mechanism and balancing the wire work and the wings. Pieces kept falling off. The mechanism was definitely a challenge. It is hard to design things I don’t personally wear. To think about how these divergent parts would react in reality was my goal.
Q. What do you plan to do with the piece?
I am working on a series of hairpins. The third piece is a pair of hairpins that form a set. I am keeping it for now.
Q. Will this piece inspire other work?
It already has. It is largely a culmination of my previous design motifs.
Saul Bell Design Award
Q. What did you feel when you learned you’d won?
Ecstatic! I have won two years in a row.
Q. Whom did you tell first about winning?
The phone call this year came in during my classes at the ice rink where I am an instructor. So the coaches and skaters and my family at the rink were the first to know.
Educational and Professional Background
Q. Of all the arts and crafts why did you choose jewelry?
It intrigued me. I began with model-making and studied DIY crafts and makers online obsessively, learning everything I could about making things. Initially at school I stumbled into jewelry. I was in a class that was next door to the jewelry lab and I heard hammering and went in. The rest is history.
Q. What was the first piece of jewelry you ever made?
It was an abstract four-leaf clover brooch. There was a school assignment to start out with a single piece of metal only and create a piece. And to work within the parameters of the metal.
Q. What was your training/academic background in jewelry-making?
It started in high school. I graduated last year. My teacher, John Garrett, taught me a lot about metalsmithing in the school jewelry department. All of the basics, from learning how to use a saw to soldering. I supplemented my work by doing a lot of research online, like watching videos and looking at diagrams to learn more advanced stone setting techniques that I would apply to Zephyr.
Q. What was the biggest challenge you have faced in your business?
I only do custom work for different clients. Family friends. I’m not running an “official business” yet.
Q. What is the best advice you received?
There is a quote from Francis Bacon, “One has an intention but what really happens comes about in working.” I don’t wait for inspiration to fall into my lap, I just do it.
Q. What other awards, honors have you received in your career?
First place in the Emerging Artist 18 Years of Age or Younger category of the 2019 SBDA competition. I made the prom crowns for my senior year. It was the most stressful four months of the year. I donated them to the school, where they are in a permanent collection at the school.
Q. What is your definition of “success?”
We would all like to be at a certain place at a certain time. So I just keep working and waiting to find it for myself.
Creative Influences and Environment
Q. What or who do you think has been the strongest influence or inspiration on your work?
My family and my ice skating family. These are the people I have worked with most of my life. And I am inspired by nature mostly.
Q. What artist, dead or alive, do you most admire? Why?
It changes all of the time you know, I’m constantly rediscovering artists and crafts people. But right now, it’s Jean Schlumberger. He was a master jeweler at Tiffany and his stone setting and design reflect how he sees the world and it’s an amazing perspective.
Q. Do you follow long-term trends? If so, why or why not?
I don’t think I do. I do what I want to do. I haven’t been in a college art program yet, I go to my local school and I will go Texas Tech next year. I sometimes feel the current trend is to become edgy and make a statement. Yes, art makes a statement, but more importantly, I think art captures a certain time, feeling and movement that helps define it and its maker.
Q. Is the product or the process more important to you? Why?
The product is most important in custom work. But there are times when I do a custom piece and my client gives me the freedom to express myself. The process is where it all starts to take shape, I feel the metal and where it wants to go. It is the most organic part of my making.
Interview by Marlene Richey